Vengeance 3.

By TimeTraveller-1900.

The breakout of the robot army exploded a few years into the occupation - the initial robotics company responsible for their development secretly managed to pass the designs of their work to other companies, knowing that they needed the resources of the other organisations to help them construct new robots while giving them the inspiration and the incentive to build their own designs. Many of them were, and they agreed with their resistance ties to continue trying to chip away at the iron grip the Minbari had over the planet.

Finally, after spending 4 years where many people had suffered and died under the occupation and the increasingly stronger human resistance continued to resist and fight off the Minbari with whatever guns, knives, sticks, clubs and axes and whatever other weapons they had to use at their disposal while continually sabotaging Minbari operations by planting small explosives which proved that the Minbari really did not have a clue how guerrilla warfare worked as they struggled to discover how the humans were able to do it, the robot armies were unleashed.

The robots were a combination of drones, like the small rotorcraft used for leisure or practical purposes during the 21st century, only far more sophisticated; drone technology still existed two hundred years into the future. They were used by both Earthforce and by IPX explorers before the occupation put paid to those operations, or so the Minbari thought. They were more lethal now, although their flight methods were largely the same, and humanoid designs while others resembled spiders of varying sizes or toy cars.

But the drones were lethal.

Terrifyingly so.

Once the plan to use robots was spread out, many people came up with imaginative and vicious designs for how to design or even use them.

However, one thing they had in common was all of them were armed with a variety of weapons, ranging from slug throwers and what remained of PPG weaponry.

Some of them had the power to drop explosives or fire small explosive darts, or darts that carried bulbs of acid or other corrosive chemicals.

A group of scientists had perfected the lightning thrower weapon, and they soon became powerful and compact enough while be more than capable of blasting Minbari down by frying their nerves. But a more imaginative scientist came up with the design of a weapon which fired a spurt of nanites, and by a spurt, millions of them were expelled and they carried a charge equivalent to a surge of 10,000 volts from a small fusion generator, so when the nanites touched the bare skin of the victim, they would taser them with that much voltage and electrocute them, however, only robots could use that type of weapon.

But when that weapon was used, the Minbari casualties rose a great deal.

From the sky, the drones swarmed through the air like giant deadly insects raining death on the Minbari like tiny warfighters straight out of a World War 2 or World War 3 vid, some of them dive bombing down to drop payloads of chemical weapons into the Minbari warriors and workers on the planet. A young human girl hiding in a shop doorway would forever be haunted by the horrifying but well-deserved screams of Minbari who collapsed to the ground, clutching their faces as they tried to rub their faces of the caustic chemicals dropped into their eyes, while other Minbari collapsed too the ground writhing from the terrible concussive sound of sonic weapons which made it easier for them to be picked off.

The resistance had discovered a key biological weakness of the Minbari. Their smaller ears made them extremely sensitive to certain frequencies, which made it easier to sabotage their operations and steal their technology. The discovery had come just by chance rather than by design, and once it was discovered, the resistance tried to make use of it whenever possible, although they had to be extremely careful about how they did it since they knew the Minbari were clever enough to work out a solution.

The Minbari were almost completely taken by surprise by the flying drones, which either fired straight at them or dropped weapons and chemicals on them, and some types of drones possessed rotors which were honed to a razor-sharp edge that sliced through the warriors. One of the deadliest drones was the wasp variant which stung the Minbari and injected anthrax and other germs into their bodies.

The humans had discovered that even on a cellular level the Minbari were being fought against by the rest of their planet, giving them a greater appreciation for nature. They had learnt the Minbari were extremely vulnerable to anthrax spores; once they were infected, the Minbari was dead within ten minutes. And it wasn't just anthrax, they were vulnerable to many other strains of bacteria, and there was ongoing research into creating bioweapons against the Minbari. Already there were plans in the works to infect large amounts of Minbari with specially tailored viruses which would wipe them out on contact.

The drones were vicious enough, but the humanoid robots were enemies the Minbari had to contend with. Armed with terrifying machine strength, more agile than a monkey, and equipped with a shocking variety of weapons. Some of them were PPG or lightning throwers or even nanotech gas weapons, but the robots came in numerous types and were capable of taking remarkable amounts of damage while slashing the Minbari warriors with Samurai-inspired swords and knives, while others fired built-in arrows and razor-edged cutting discs which were fired at incredible speed, and could slice a Minbari warrior's head off. Inspired by the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies, a few robot variants were armed - literally - with chainsaws built into their arms which bit and decapitated their victims with an unnerving savage efficiency.

The Minbari tried to fight back, but their training was no match for the smaller robots although they did manage to get lucky and some of their fighting pikes smashed a couple of them, there were too many robots. Their robotic enemies were more numerous and while some Minbari noticed that the robots were clearly programmed not to harm humans - logical, since the robots were needed to protect and liberate Earth - they couldn't take advantage of it. The streets had been bare of humans, who were given prior warning of the rebellion and those few who were on the streets to give the Minbari the impression all was well, were surrounded by a small party of robots as dictated by the programming.

Hardwired into every robot, every drone, was a command to protect all the humans they encountered, without exception.

X

Over the next seven months, the Earth-Minbari war reignited in full. With the help of the robots, the humans were able to infiltrate Minbari installations and they stole numerous pieces of Minbari technology and weapons. A spaceport which had been repurposed to house Minbari fighters and flyers was one of the first places captured. Based in America, the spaceport was one of a number of strategic targets. Once the Minbari were killed or captured to be subjected to telepathic invasion to discover their technology worked, which required the help of more than one surviving teep with P12 or lower to get through, they discovered how to use the Minbari ships and break them apart.

Once they did, the breach in Minbari security was horrifying.

But the most horrifying thing the humans did was to use Minbari flyers to fly up to the few Minbari warships in Earth orbit, loaded with three nukes, and emitting a Minbari life sign when there was none. The Minbari had left only a few of their ships in orbit above Earth, but in order to ensure their growing liberation of Earth went the way they hoped, the humans felt the best way to rebuild their forces quickly was to send up decoys.

Once the flyers docked with the Minbari ships, they exploded in blasts of nuclear fusion energy, killing millions on the ships.

The solar system was liberated. But it wouldn't last, and besides, there were still Minbari who were now trapped on the planet. The humans were regaining their world each day. Once they had gotten the technology back, the humans began constructing a number of satellites armed with Minbari neutron cannons and fusion and fission missiles to encircle the Earth.

For several months, the work into biological weapons had proceeded apace, but the leaders of the Earth had some plans in mind for surviving Minbari on the planet. They wanted to use them as hostages to stop the Minbari from attacking Earth again, and so they began capturing the Minbari on the planet while they rebuilt their space fleet. But the Minbari decided enough was enough.

While this was going on, the Minbari war fleet which returned to Earth in force to wipe out the humans once and for was faced with a problem. The humans televised the hostages they had taken from the Minbari survivors their robots and cybernetically armoured soldiers had allowed to live, to be used as a bargaining chip. The human demands were reasonable. They would return the Minbari to one ship, and one ship only, and the others would leave and just leave the human race in peace. If they did that, they would never encounter the humans again.

Sadly, many of the decisions of the government were badly thought out, such as the idea of using force against the Minbari, and it was a miracle that a group of telepaths had interrogated/tortured a Shai Alyt who had been visiting the planet and discovered that the Minbari had Deathwalker in their custody. When the government and resistance groups realised that the Minbari had the power to use bioweapons against them, they immediately began looking for ways of protecting themselves.

Scientists and geneticists familiar with Deathwalker's work were brought together and they began genetically engineering their people while looking for possibilities into what kind of weapons the last Dilgar in the universe had given to the Minbari to exterminate humanity. They felt it was the only way to really deal with the problem while they had suspended animation booths prepared for their greater population to protect them all should the work fail.

In space, the Minbari Warrior Caste - tired and frustrated by the humans and their constant resistance and defiance against their betters, and angry with the Grey Council tying their hands - decided to take the initiative, although many of them were goaded by Deathwalker herself. They fired the weapons into Earth's atmosphere. Millions of people, even those who'd undergone genetic engineering were killed in the first strike, but others proved more resistant to the weapons.

After three weeks, the Minbari landed on the planet and liberated the remaining members of their people. They left Earth en masse, deciding that the planet was just cursed, and they prepared to leave the planet to rot. They knew sooner or later scavengers would come and feed on the humans and their technology. They believed that was the greatest bonus yet. In the meantime, they had to answer to the outraged Grey Council. They had gone against the will of their leaders.

Once the Minbari left, the planet Earth was empty of humans. And while the animal and plant life of the planet rebuilt and flourished, there was no sign of the humans.

They were gone.

And Earth remained empty.

And yet...

Author's Note - I wanted the leaders of the Resistance to make a mistake and slip up. There will be consequences, for Earth, for Minbar.